#Thought tbf there's like... three classes here so idk

[darksilvershadows36]

"Choose the person who you think was this field trip's-"

I'll be honest teach I do not know who half these people are. Let alone who I think was star student. Like I don't even know the names of some of the people in the same room as me, let alone the whole group.

[canonicallyanxious]

Previous anon! I think you mentioned a literature degree in a post a while back. (But the tags you left on the ask certainly showed evidence of it haha). I was curious and wanted you to talk about it but wasnt sure if i should straight up say "pls talk about your degree i am very interested and curious"

lollll i mean as a lit major i feel like i’m morally obligated to drag myself for it bc like i deserve it but yeah i’m down to talk about my degree!! uhhh idk if you have anything specific in mind, feel free to ask me whatever you want to know bc it turns out when asked to talk about my degree i don’t even know where to start rip also if you’re looking for someone who can advise you on what you can do with a lit major i am the wrong person to go to sdkjfnsdkjsnfd what i do for work now has basically nothing to do with what i studied but i’m honestly good with that bc it was always something i studied more because i wanted to than because i wanted to turn it into an actual career

Trying to remember what lit classes i liked the best... off the top of my head: contemporary women novelists, modern english lit, black literature in europe, post-colonial lit [by far my favorite lit class ever, that reading list fuckin slapped]; there was also a class that i don’t remember what it was called anymore but i loved it bc we read a lot of more nontraditional writing that also focused a lot on intergenerational trauma [so like Maus and the Photographer which are graphic novels were on the reading list, and we also read a poem called Zong! and experimental plays and things like that]

hmmm not knowing what specifically you wanna know about i guess i’ll just give some general thoughts about being a lit major [and tossing a cut here bc i got rambly... i’m sorry... you asked a lit major about being a lit major this is what happens i guess]

as one might expect it involves a fuckton of reading and writing literary analysis which might be a con for some but definitely not for me. but like i am the kind of asshole who actually likes reading three books in a week and writing a 7 page close reading comparing the roles of Persuasion’s Ann Elliot and the Bride of Lamermoor’s Lucy so, you know, i certainly don’t expect what works for me to be a one-size-fits-all kind of thing lol

One thing I really liked with the classes i took was the opportunity to push back against the typical canon of the Dead White Man that i feel like was really prevalent in public school. tbf there was still quite a bit of that in some of my classes [James Joyce meet me in the fucking pit] but if you’re strategic with the classes you sign up for you really get the chance to get exposed to a lot of unique and diverse perspectives, i feel like the foundation i got in those classes helped me form a baseline for where to start in finding more literature like that

Although as mentioned i did still have a lot of issues with that in my department. like idk if that was just my school or being in undergrad or whatever but i feel like a lot of lit majors I knew had a very prescriptive view of what “counts” as literature, we got into so many discussions about what qualifies as ~art~ [which if you know me i think is such bullshit like who are we to judge what is more artistic than something else particularly when for so much of history what has been deemed ~proper literature~ was written by white men but anyway we don’t have to get into it right now lol] and while i got the sense that the culture was slowly changing while i was part of it i do still feel like there’s a lot about the lit academia world that still kinda has to catch up, like it can be a field rife with elitism and narrow-mindedness depending on where you are in it. but of course that’s just my own take on it! ymmv and all that

i feel like this major taught me way more about how to read than about how to write, like at my school at least especially in a lot of the upper level classes there was basically no guidance for how to write your papers you’re kind of already expected to know how to write good literary criticism? also tbh i didn’t always love writing papers, in fact sometimes it fucking sucked having to write long analyses about topics i didn’t give a shit about and sometimes you have to do a FUCKTON of writing about shit you don’t care about [especially during finals week rip college Sarah you will not be missed]. but i think the analysis skills i developed while studying lit are genuinely really valuable even if i don’t really do anything directly related to my field of study career wise, like they help me be more thoughtful about pretty much everything i read and watch from the news to fiction and also be more thoughtful about my choices in my own creative writing all of which i really appreciate esp since it’s stuff i’m interested in just in general so I definitely don’t regret this choice of study!

sidenote but big rip to anyone who goes into this major and likes reading for fun in their downtime sdfknsnf i had way too much reading always to do any of my own reading outside of class [anthro is a very reading/writing heavy major too BIG rip to college Sarah] and when i did have breaks i was like fuck no i’m not thinking about words until i ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO [by going back to class] [god i’m so glad i’m not in school anymore]

Lord that got rambly skjfnskdjfnsd idek if any of that is anything you’d be interested in but yeah feel free to ask me more specific questions if you feel like it! then maybe i won’t go off on a million tangents [disclaimer: i probably still will]

[estebanocon]

Finally let the last week sink in properly (somewhat). So here’s the post about seeing Esteban Ocon over the 2018 Singapore GP week. 😊💕

Tuesday - arrival Yeah, so I did that thing where I waited at the airport hoping he’d show up. And yeah, he did. Unlike last year, this time I was PREPARED and also I don’t have classes on Tuesday so yay, perfect! CONFESSION: I actually prepared his gift a really long time ago (it’s just a pair of Pink Panther socks because I thought it was cute but also practical and easy to pack, and a couple of other knick knacks) and the only thing that I left till closer to the date was a card/letter (which I’d also been drafting for a while).

When he came out, we waited till he cleared the barrier (lesson learnt from previous year) before approaching him and asking him for autographs and photos. I didn’t ask him for a photo this time (because everyone else was and I didn’t want to take up even more of his time), just gave him my caps to sign. I have all three of his caps and it was a bit cute because he didn’t expect me to have the grey one from last year, so when he saw it, he smiled and said “you have them all!” And yes, Esteban, of course I have them all.

After that, I waited for everyone else to get what they wanted before giving him the present anddddd�� asking him for a hug, which he very kindly obliged. :’) Oh yeah, my friend was with me and she got the whole thing on video so if you want to see it, here you go!

(While waiting for him, Charles Leclerc showed up and we got pics with him too.)

Thursday - autograph session I actually ended up going to his table twice because everyone else was in the queue for Sebastian Vettel. The first time I just gave him a couple of pictures and a poster to sign. He recognised me from the airport and was like “hello! are you alright?” and because I was taken aback by that I replied with “are you alright, man” which wow lame. I got the picture the second time, but I was still too shy and awkward to actually have a conversation with him. [ more on autograph session ]

Friday - FP Honestly, I just happened to come in to the circuit park at the same time he did. He got surrounded by fans pretty quickly and had to move along to get through them all but still stopped to take this picture with me. Tbf I was wearing his hat and similar sunglasses to his (power of the merch y’all), and I didn’t realise it till later but he actually did recognise me from the previous two days.

So after both FP sessions, I hung out at the paddock entrance (because I wanted to say bonne nuit and all the best for quali) and when he came out, I just said “all the best for tomorrow” while he was signing stuff. He recognised me (idk why that still surprised me, but it did???) and held out his hand for the “homie handshake” and yeah I grabbed on and didn’t want to let go 😂and he asked again “hi! are you alright?” and me, being the idiot I am, just repeated “yeah, all the best for tomorrow!”

It got a bit awkward because I left immediately after that and so did he, so we were actually walking in the same direction (only one way out of that zone rip). My friend took the opportunity to get a picture with him and ask him where he got his sunglasses from. While Esteban and his trainer walked away, I called out bonne nuit to him, which he called back to me. After that, to my friend, I was like “oh man, can we walk slower because I don’t want him to think I’m a stalker” because excluding the airport, I REALLY AM NOT, I KNOW MY BOUNDARIES.

Also, it was after this interaction that I realised that him asking if I was alright was just him being French, ie. “comment ça va?”

Saturday - qualifying Headed to the paddock entrance again as soon as I entered the circuit park, but didn’t do anything except popped out when he came by to say hi. He said hello back. 😆Stayed back after qualifying just to say “bonne nuit” to him as he left which he also said back.

Sunday - race day I was late going in to the circuit park so I missed seeing him, but I did manage to catch his attention during the drivers’ track parade (video is somewhere on my IG highlight).

For the race itself: I was crying from devastation and happiness at the same time. My emotions were all over the place because: a) I was drinking and therefore quite tipsy throughout b) I was on my period c) Esteban DNF’d because of the clash with his teammate d) Lewis won and extended his championship lead e) All the above.

My friend and I ran onto the track for the podium (which was great) and then ran back to the paddock entrance immediately after Lewis went in. And once again, I waited till Esteban came out before heading home myself.

When he did, I held out my pass for him to sign and also held my hand out for that “homie” handshake, he returned the gesture and I just told him “it was really nice seeing you over the past week, onwards and upwards yeah, we’re behind you 100%”, he said thank you and told me he really appreciated it.

And there you have it, that’s the last part of my story from the 2018 Singapore GP. Sorry for the super long posts, but I just wanted to document everything and share it. <3 The only thing left I have to say is: ESTEBAN IS DOING SO WELL, BOTH ON TRACK AND OFF, I AM SO PROUD OF HIM AND PROUD TO CALL MYSELF A FAN OF HIS. ALSO, HE DESERVES THE WORLD. That is all, thanks for reading this word wall. <3

[1] [2] [3] [4] [IG story highlight]

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[clarenecessities]

5/15/17

so after getting very little sleep last night i got sort of annoyed during our morning language session? like we were learning about verbal nouns & grant was trying to ask what we were learning how to do but our teacher just kept explaining broad vs slender vowels over and over in more and more detail, bc grant like didn’t phrase the question right or something? and i like wasn’t annoyed with grant i was annoyed that the teacher thought he was that slow on the uptake & that one of our classmates was laughing like. damn. he literally just wanted to know the name of the thing we were learning, jesus christ. two words vs an in-depth 10 minute lecture with no breaks for me to say “hey uh grant’s smart i’m pretty sure he got it like ten minutes ago”

we broke for tea immediately after & i ate like 5 biscuits which i think helped my irritation, but mostly i was reassured by people going up to grant and telling him that like he wasn’t an idiot & they had actually been psyched to hear about broad v slender (tbf sean never taught us--i learned it from wikipedia myself & its applications re: the verbal noun are significant) like... idk it made me feel a lot better to know that people weren’t being condescending assholes & that even if you ask the most obvious question like five times & people just misunderstand you, they won’t think you’re stupid

i was always very paranoid about asking stupid questions (& eventually about speaking at all) back in the day so it was refreshing and it made me really happy. grant is a Good Smart Boy and people recognized that.

in the afternoon we did drawing--the art teacher said if we were confident we could do our own thing so i worked on my character designs some more. he said they were beautiful, so [flips hair]. in all seriousness though it was really nice to have like, someone who knows what they’re talking about notice specific things about my work like how it’s illustrative or i have good proportions, like that feels so much more sincere than “wow you’re so good at art i can’t even draw stick figures” like really karen? you can’t draw a circle and three lines? like yes i appreciate any and all compliments (#crave that validation, am i right) but if it’s just like “oh whoa” it doesn’t really... it’s not a compliment so much as an “oh hey i didn’t know you could draw” which is almost always followed by a request to draw them

i was actually pretty impressed with my classmates--considering this isn’t even kind of an art class, they’re all like... wicked talented? like, better than former classes i’ve had which were actually art classes. like kelly did a really cool skull, or ben did this awesome portrait of alex (and showed me some of his stuff for worldbuilding when we were talking about characters) and like they’re all so Good and i’m so glad i’m in a class with them

jazzmyn especially though is very bad about accepting compliments, which i intend to remedy, bc she’s an angel and in fact very talented, particularly for someone who claims to be exclusively an auditory artist.

shiloh asked if my drawing of claude was an anime alex though which was a Dark Spot on the afternoon

the kittens were good, although mayday was shaking a little... i ran into ghost and sweet baby outside the shed but they were uh “busy” so i just went into town and got some food. i had assumed ghost was their brother since they look about the same age but uh!! don’t think so!!! this probably means he’s the kittens’ father though which explains them both being tabbies. i gave him a lecture on irresponsible parenting.

paddy mor came in for his last session today--gonna miss him actually.

been reading about feral children bc i was trying to research muteness and immediately fell down a rabbit hole so here we go again i guess